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Monthly Archives: February 2011

I am so amazed at how creative the teams have been this month with their events! It can be difficult to engage students in extracurricular activities that involve serious global issues and I’m so happy to see fun and exciting things happening to really pull students in to the NGC experience.

Tolleson/University High has been SO busy planning events! Their holiday carnivals went really well and now they are planning a movie night as well as a poetry night. On Fri, Feb 18th they will be co-hosting an event with their school’s Student Advisory Board to initiate a conversation on campus about public education. They will be showing the film Waiting for Superman and providing a panel of speakers to discuss it’s content and relate it to their NGC project the Afghan institute of learning. Then on Fri, Feb 25th they will be hosting an event called poetry café in which students and community members will be reading Afghan poetry along with original poetry. At their last meeting they played excerpts from poems featured in the piece lost voices of afghanistan found on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2011/01/110119_doc_lost_voices_afghanistan.shtml Which was really powerful. Tolleson also recently had a focus meeting with ASU at their campus to discuss it’s new tourism degree. Great job guys, I have loved coming to your meetings!

Raymond S. Kellis has been busy planning their Valentine’s Day event entitled Send Your Love To Africa . At This event the team will be selling Valentine’s Day hearts with student’s names on them and then posting them all over a “heart attack” wall in order to raise funds for House of Hope Uganda. They also are planning a few more events before the end of the semester. They’ve created a tumblr page: http://rskhsngc.tumblr.com/ to describe their club and House of Hope

University High School has been crazy busy with their annual government project and therefore haven’t had a lot of time to do all things NGC BUT they a couple things in the works that sound awesome. This coming weekend they will be hosting a movie showing of the film Women’s Empowerment which was sent out in one of the NGC monthly challenge packets. They are hoping that this will re-establish a buzz on campus about NGC. in the coming weeks they are also planning to host a forum concerning economics in developing countries in order to address the lack of economic opportunities that exist in certain countries and how that can lead to religious conflict. If this forum sparks interest, they are hoping to put on a bonfire/dinner event to further discuss the issues, connect them to their project Interfaith Mediation Center, and raise funds.

PV NGC will be having their first fundraising event at Rubios for a benefit night on February 16th. They have also been in contact with other restaurants and frozen yogurt shops in the area to start doing more benefit nights for House of Hope.

Palmyra High school is still in the process of picking their project which they’ve narrowed down to APOPO, House of Hope, or School on Wheels. I’m secretly hoping that they’ll pick APOPO because i think it is such an amazingly interesting project, but of course all of the projects are wonderful so they can’t go wrong.

Paradise Valley has unfortunately run into some technical problems involving the NGC website and have since been slightly overwhelmed with the process. Hopefully we can get back into touch so that they can continue with their support of Agri-forest Agents.

I haven’t heard from Shaker HS since they had their extremely successful talent show in which they earned over $1,000. from the pictures, it looked like a blast and i’m very proud of them for pulling together their leadership to put on this event. hopefully a skype meeting is in our future if i can resume contact.

Finally I want to welcome Seton Catholic Prep to the NGC family, hopefully i will hear from them soon!

Hoping everyone a happy Valentine’s Day and a wonderful February

-Athena

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A new year has begun, and there is no better movement than New Global Citizens to make a change! The spring semester holds great things, and I for one am very excited. Our teams are in the process of planning phenomenal fundraisers in order to raising money and awareness for their respective projects. I am lucky to firsthand experience this, and I’m looking forward to attending and supporting the many adventures in the upcoming months. 🙂

After enjoying the holidays, we are off to a fantastic start. January was primarily filled with getting back into the groove of things. Although no fundraiser initiations took place, I know that behind-the-scenes, all of my teams are working hard! I can’t wait for all the team leaders to reply to my obnoxious messages to hear how everybody’s doing!

To begin with, I’d like to welcome our newest school, Perry High School from Gilbert, Arizona. Interestingly, I graduated from Perry in June 2010. The home of the Pumas initiated a club called FACES, an acronym meaning For A Cause Educating Students. The club raised money and awareness for a handful of organizations. They decided to collaborate with NGC after losing members and motivation in their club. They wish to make a global difference and feel NGC will be the perfect piece to their puzzle. Team leaders are in the process of deciding on their project, as well as their goals. Can’t wait to work with you, PHS!

Just 2 miles down, Basha High School is truly forming a family within their New Global Citizens team. Further explained, they recently had a “Culture Night.” Here each member brought an item, food or article of clothing representing their respective culture. The enjoyed an evening of bonding and sharing. Team leader Maryam Shakir holds the mission of NGC and diversity close to her heart, and as a result, culture night was a success! How fun, Basha! Basha’s global project, House of Hope, helps children orphaned because of AIDS to receive clean water, medical care, education, adequate nutrition and most importantly, the security of knowing that somebody loves them. The team has successfully raised awareness and money for their project with a booth at Homecoming and hosting “Bracelets of Hope.” Next up, a dodgeball tournament. They are hard at work in making this the biggest dodgeball tournament BHS has ever seen! Keep it up, Basha!

Westminster in Massachusetts has started of 2011 on the right foot! As I’m typing this, Marielle and her NGC team are selling raffle tickets for an Itouch, Itunes gift card and Netflix gift card! All of these prizes were donated to the NGC team. How awesome is that?! The team will be profiting significantly while having a blast. Man, would I love being a student there! 🙂 The team has already made a difference for their project, The Nirvanavan Foundation – a grassroots organization working in remote areas of Alwar district of Rajasthan on education, ecological and social issues. They made about $265.00 at their bake sale and with this raffle, they will see this increase over the next few weeks. Congratulations, Westminster! Keep up the hard work!

Bioscience in Phoenix, Arizona is SO close to getting rolling! I am anticipating working closer with them to be able to assist the new NGC team! If I don’t hear anything soon, I’ll be marching on over on account they’re less than a mile away from my residency hall! 🙂 Now that we’ve formed a team who understands the New Global Citizens mission, we will finalizing choosing our project and making our goals.

Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona is busy planning their annual benefit concert! I look forward to getting in touch with team leader Madison to see how things are rolling! I for one, am stoked for this concert! It is always a huge success, and I want to be as involved as I can. Gooooo, Red Mountain! 🙂

My fellow Chicago team, The Papa Bears! Walter Payton College Preparatory School is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with their 3 projects!! The team continues to impress me with their ambition. I’m excited to hear back from the wonderful group of team leader about what’s next on the agenda. I know that we’re brainstorming fundraising ideas and no matter what we choose, we will be successful as Papa Bears! 🙂

Cypress Falls High School in Texas are putting their ideas of selling candy grams and carnation grams, hosting a rummage sale, having a community book sale and hosting a board game tournament into ACTION! Cypress Falls New Global Citizens team is full of creativity and I look forward to working with them more during this spring semester to reach our goals!

January was fun, and now I’m looking forward to achievement this February! We as New Global Citizens have so much promise, and I can’t wait to see it in action! 🙂

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I can’t believe its the end of January already!! My teams have been fabulous in keeping the momentum of awesomeness going!! They make me, and NGC really proud with their spectacular ideas and advocacy and approaches towards their projects!

Bloomington with Chloe as their leader is doing some real awesome things! They’ve got a really cool Battle of the Bands fundraiser approaching and they are working steadily to get it going! They will be required to sell 10 tickets (5 dollar presale, 8 dollar at the door and they are currently looking around for sponsers and prizes. Wish them luck!! Starting a little later than most teams, I’m very happy to see them catch up and work hard for their project: Shelter of Friendship!! (http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/global-projects/south-america/associacao-barraca-de-amizade-shelter-of-friendship-association) The Shelter of Friendship works with youth aged 12-24 who are living on the streets! This organization provides alternatives to help them find housing, tutoring, and counseling, a really awesome project! They need a couple more bands and then their Battle will be on the way!

Chaparral HS is doing some awesome things too! They’ve done a huge amount of fundraisers including Winter Greens, a coin drive, and headband sales. They’ve also got a lot of ideas coming this semester too including a car wash, bake sale, and maybe a letter campaign! There ambition, drive, and awesome teamwork will help with this large plate of fundraisers but I know they can handle it! Chaparral is helping the Malawi Well Repair Projects where only $5 can fix a well. This specific project seems to be really popular and is really easy to advocate, I think, because only FIVE DOLLARS will change someones life! How easy is that? Providing safe and clean drinking water to many families in Malawi is Chaparral’s campaign and they’re doing an awesome job!

I am welcoming a new team this month with Cherry Hill East High School. Led by Jessica and Chris, they seem to be at a good start. They’re still in the deciding processes of New Global Citizens but I think they are really honing in on The Sunshine Charity in Sri Lanka. The Sunshine Charity helps provide short and long-term aid to families affected by the 2004 tsunami. This is an AWESOME project and I can’t wait to help them decide projects for it!

Desert Mountain HS is still going strong with Elizabeth as their leader! They’ll hopefully be doing some fundraisers and more advocacy missions before the end of the year! I’m really excited to hear from them soon about their new semester and updates!

I am really happy about the progress that Mesa Academy has made! This junior high group is ALSO doing the Malawi Well Repair Project and has some fantastic ideas in the works including selling water bottles with pre-printed labels about the project, and what people can do to help! I can’t wait to see where this fundraising idea gets them!!

One of my newest teams, Espiritu Charter, is also off to a GREAT start! This is one of New Global Citizens’ classroom groups and they are going to do amazing things, I know it! I visited this team just a few weeks ago and I can tell that they’ve got a great passion for helping and fundraising. Being able to advocate for international projects won’t be a problem for this team at all!! They are still in the beginning stages of project choosing so I’ll keep the blog updated on what this team chooses!

Each of my teams brings a unique and personal perspective to their projects, and New Global Citizens! It’s refreshing to note how the future is being held in such responsible and caring students! Not only do these kids recognize the importance of their projects, but at the velocity its being impacted! I just want to thank all my teams for pushing through the frustrating times, whether it be the school administration or nit-picky companies who won’t help, I know and NGC knows what an awesome job you guys are truly doing!

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My month started off with a fabulous call between the Diamond Bar HS team and Nicole from World Action for Humanity. The Diamond Bar team is raising funds and awareness for the House of Hope project in Uganda that World Action for Humanity partners with. House of Hope of Uganda offers 229 orphans clean water, food, medical care, and an education. The students asked Nicole several questions about House of Hope and her personal experience working for the U.N.. Overall this call was extremely successful, students were given a chance to hear about their project from a primary source and were impressed by Nicole’s inspiring stories. A complaint I heard from Diamond Bar when I met with them last semester was that their members felt they were not educated enough on the subject of HIV/AIDS in Uganda or House of Hope to properly educate their school. I feel the facts and stories Nicole provided them with will help bridge this knowledge gap and boost their confidence. They also were able to tell Nicole about their work for House of Hope and received thanks and encouragement from her which I’m sure was empowering.

The Bay area teams are doing particularly well. Gunn HS just finished collecting money in jars during their spirit week for Las Tias ( http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/global-projects/central-america-and-the-Caribbean/las-tias ), and gathered an impressive 700 dollars. Their second fundraiser of the year will be next saturday and is a school wide dodgeball tournament! “Dodge Poverty” asks students enter dodge ball teams at a cost of five dollars. Already businesses have offered to donate prizes and the team has even asked local trainers from gyms to participate and judge the event! This whole event is SO creative, I LOVE IT!

Mitty HS of San Jose is starting to form a team, and already I can tell their team will be a success. The two leaders have met with me numerous times throughout the year to discuss ways to get their team started. Their administration is finally allowing them to create a team, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.

Oxford HS in L.A. is preparing for their biggest fundraiser of the year called Band Aid. The past couple years the Oxford team has asked local youtube bands to play for their city, and donated the profits to their chosen NGC project. This year they chose the Amahoro Association in Rwanda, a center that provides kids orphaned by HIV/ AIDS and the genocide with post trauma counseling, scholarships, HIV prevention, health care, and more. To learn more you can go to http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/global-projects/africa/amahoro-association .

Wow! School has only been in session for one month and already the California teams are doing great things! I know I say it every month ( it’s only because its true), but I am SO proud of all my teams. Every week I hear another story of a grouchy administration that stopped a team from planning an event or get a stressed out call from a student who is over their head in finals and college apps… but through it all these students don’t take no for an answer and find a way to plan amazing events to benefit their projects!